Going Out Like Naslund

Markus Naslund did something you don't see often in sports: he walked away to help his team. It was something that went unnoticed, even among NHL and Rangers fans. The Rangers are a cap-strapped team, held hostage by Glen Sather's mismanagement, dolling out multimillion dollar contracts to aging veterans signed by Cablevision. They were killed by those signings this year, unable to sign or make trades for the scorer they needed (such as Mats Sundin). And they are going to be hurt by those signings going forward. Markus Naslund's contract was going to be one of those. He was signed for two years, $8 million. All guaranteed money. By the end of last year, his age and declining skills caught up to him and he was mostly rendered a useless cog in the Rangers offense-less machine. By the time the playoffs hit, he was hurting the team but with his salary, the Rangers had no choice but to continue to run him out there.

"But," as Arthur Staple wrote in Newsday, "Naslund took the dignified way out after 15 seasons, saving the Rangers $4 million in cap space for next season. There's no telling what Glen Sather will do with that money, but Naslund turned it down because he didn't earn it."

And reading over that article this past week, my thoughts went to Hideki Matsui. The man who apologized in 2006 when his large consecutive game streak which stretched back to his early days in Japan came to and end and he couldn't help the team for months because of injury. Matsui returned to form and health in 2007 and posted another Godzilla-like season, but the past two seasons have been injury-filled. Last year he only got 337 ABs. He went into the offseason knowing his knees are shot and he was probably going to be unable to run or play the field.

But he came back this year. Maybe he felt a duty to the Yankees to come back and help the team. He came here to win World Series rings and besides a trip there in 2003, he's been shut out from that goal. He may have wanted one more go at it. And when he's been in the lineup the past few years, they've been able to use his bat. Despite his problems last year, his .294/.370/.424 line was nothing to sneeze at.

Yet some part of me thinks he may just have been better going out on last year's note. The Yankees right now can use his bat, though his inability to play the field is troublesome for a team that's already thin on the bench. But Matsui is a shell of the player he was. For his career with RISP his line is .297/.379/.466; this season he's .212/.386/.273. And that's where they seem to miss him most.

And watching this happen to Matsui, I wonder what happens to Derek Jeter. After next season he's a free agent and I can't see the Steinbrenner family letting him go play anyplace else. Which means they'll give Jeter a long-term deal to stay here and get his 3000th hit in Pinstripes (and be the first Yankee player to do so). Will he swallow his pride and allow the Yankees to move him off of short, a position he is far too weak at now, but one that he takes so much pride in playing? And when he feels like he's not earning his salary anymore, when he's not helping the team and when his time here is up, will he walk away from all the money to help the team? That will be the true test of the Captain. To see if he can act as selflessly as Markus Naslund did.